Muni Driver Says He Didn't See Violence / No call to police to report incident

Jaxon Van Derbeken, Chronicle Staff Writer

Published 4:00 am, Thursday, November 2, 2000

A Municipal Railway trolley bus driver apparently did not know about a rampage by gang members who allegedly stormed his vehicle and attacked three passengers, stabbing one of them, authorities said yesterday.

The attack took place Monday evening when as many as 15 youths pulled the poles from the overhead wires of the 14-Mission near 18th and Mission streets. While the driver got off to reattach the poles, the youths piled onto the bus, shouting "19th Street! 19th Street!" and attacked three passengers, one of whom managed to fend them off with a razor.

In the end, four youths were arrested after some of them came to the same hospital as the victims and the groups clashed there.

Police had complained that the Muni driver had not reported the incident and that they could not find him. Yesterday, Muni spokeswoman Maggie Lynch said the driver had not realized that someone had been stabbed.

When the driver returned from reattaching the poles, Lynch said, "they (the victims and attackers) were off the bus already. He contacted dispatch, but he thinks whatever it was was over."

The driver is cooperating with police, she said.

Lt. Kitt Crenshaw, who oversees the San Francisco police gang task force, agreed that the Muni is cooperating. He said the attack appeared to have been connected to two incidents during the weekend involving suspected gang members.

At noon Saturday, a man was shot four times and left paralyzed at 20th and Lexington streets. Eleven hours later, a 19-year-old woman was wounded by gunfire at 19th and Mission streets in an apparent clash between Nortenos and Surenos gang members.

Police said the woman was not in a gang, and the assailants apparently were aiming for her boyfriend, whom they suspected was a gang member. He was not injured. A juvenile suspect was arrested Tuesday.

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There have been other clashes between the two gangs in recent days, including four stabbings and two beatings, one with a baseball bat, Crenshaw said.

"I don't believe there is a gang war," he said. "This is more of the cyclical-type of ongoing gang rivalry that we have had for the last few years."

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